Buemi came past on lap three, followed by the recovering Nick Heidfeld and Paul di Resta. That left Glock in his usual position, watching Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus getting progressively smaller, while also being one of several drivers to suffer braking problems.

He is still racing for a team that is going to get beaten by HRT 2 years in a row. And even though Virgin is getting everything in place, it will take them at least 3 seasons to make it to the mid field, and they might never be a front running car. A driver like Glock could have done better.

No other options for Glock and i guess for him being in F1 is more important than being competitive. Lets face it of the new teams only Team Lotus really have a chance of making their way up the grid in the future. I predict HRT and Virgin will be gone by the time the new rules come into effect for the 2014 season.

Virgin have a solid foundation, adding to that they from the start of next year will have Mclaren facilities. And then they also have Marussia backing. Have to say, it looks good. Yes this years car wasn’t so great. But hopefully with Wirth gone, they can aim to copy rather than try and invent, as Wirth did.

I really hope they manage to find a good new direction quickly and will discover some good pace with it. Otherwise HRT will end the year being notably faster. Glock doesn’t have a big amount of other options I think, but to sign for several years you’d think they must have A Plan (which started by getting Wirth out, prompted partly by Glock – he was just too unimaginative it seemed) and means to execute it.

d’Ambrosio doesn’t have much to show for it, but I think he has been doing a pretty solid job so far in difficult circumstances.

If Nick Wirth was still about it’s hard to imagine that Glock would have signed another long-term contract. Hopefully that’s indicative of better results to come either towards the end of this year or from 2012 onwards.